Four Part Harmony

Whew, well we’re back from the big weekend up in Trout Lake. The “Last Chance Barn Dance”, as it was being billed, was tons of fun. I think we’re still decompressing a bit from all the late nights, early mornings, hot summer afternoons in the shade, and great music. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

Anna had fun, despite the fact that she came down with a runny nose the first day. We weren’t sure if it was a cold or allergy, or if it was just that last set of molars coming in, but it made it tough for her to sleep very well. Still, ever the trooper, she managed to have quite a good time. This is her next to the pasture where the horses were. The frog hat was courtesy of our generous friend Mo, who seemed to have a bottomless basket of helpful things, and was always willing to share.

Here’s Anna trying her hand at Papa’s mandolin…

And here’s Anna and me doing some drumming.

An old friend, and former Boone’s Ferry housemate Dave was back in town. Here’s Dave and Anna getting a little pre-show boogie in up in the barn.

Another constant source of hilarity for the weekend were the things people were picking up at the big yard sale that was going on in town. Folks were wandering around in all manner of crazy hats, bathrobes, etc. This little number that Nicki was sporting is called the “Snug-Suit”. A bargain at any price, I’m sure you’ll agree. She later added a nice hat to the ensemble.

The lineup of musicians reads like a who’s who of great Portland musicians. It also reads like your average month’s schedule at the Laurelthirst, but you won’t catch me complainin’.
We didn’t really take too many pictures up in the barn where the music was going on, and the ones we did take mostly didn’t turn out that great.
Both Saturday and Sunday the bands played until well after 2 or 3 am, and I know that all of these pictures were taken before 10 or so.
Still, here’s a small collection of photos of the bands…

Jackstraw. Portland’s premiere bluegrass band. We don’t get out to see these guys as much as we used to, so it’s been great to see them a couple times this summer. They played the first set of the weekend, and it seemed to end too soon.

Lewi Longmire Band. Lewi (center) was the guy that put the whole weekend together. He’s a guitar wizard and also writes some excellent songs. This set too seemed to end really quickly. Anna had to get to bed about midway through, so Nicki took her to bed and I got to stay up for the night. I also stopped taking pictures about this time.

Bingo (guitar on the left of this photo) led the next band, and the Freak Mountain Ramblers played the last set of the night. Eventually, I slept.

Sunday evening. Billy Kennedy and Paul Brainard. Billy’s a great local guitarist and song writer, and Paul is the pedal steel player around town. Paul was playing with everybody all weekend long, and it’s no mystery why.

Little Sue and Lynn Conover. A couple of Portland songwriters that occasionally play together as a duo. It had probably been a few years since I’d seen them play together. Great vocal harmonies. Anna made it about halfway through their set and then went to sleep in the sling.

I missed a photo of James Low and his band, but they were great also. Thought maybe he had a new band, but I guess I hadn’t seen him play with a full band in a while.

Michael Hurley. Michael played a great, pretty rockin’ set. Dave Reisch played the bass and sang the high harmony parts.
At the end of his set, Michael introduced the band he’s been on tour with, The Places, and they did a tune together…A fishermen’s song about an island off the coast of Maine. Then they did “So lonesome I could cry”. Then me and Anna went to bed, because my back and the soles of my feet were about to give way.
The night was clear and the music carried nicely. We laid down and listened for a while as we drifted off.

Monday morning went by in a blink, with a lot of folks kinda slow to get out of the tent. Everyone kind of took their time getting packed up, cooking breakfast, wandering around to each others campsites, telling stories, saying goodbyes etc. We had hoped to get up the road to the big huckleberry fields, but it wasn’t in the cards. It was naptime (for Anna), and so we figured it best to get on the road. She was out pretty quickly once we got going (so was Nicki), and we had a pretty quiet trip home.

Whew, maybe this weekend we’ll stick around the house and take it easy.